更新時間 2010年 11月 8日, 格林尼治標準時間20:33
科學家在瑞士利用歐洲強子對撞機製造了一次小型「宇宙大爆炸」，模擬了近140億年前宇宙形成的瞬間過程。
這次實驗使用鉛原子核進行對撞，產生的等離子狀態和宇宙形成之初類似。實驗的目的也正是要解開宇宙形成之謎。
周一實驗產生的瞬間高溫相當於太陽核心溫度的100萬倍，是迄今人類在實驗室獲得的最高溫度和能量。
歐洲強子對撞機是世界上最大的粒子加速器，建在日內瓦附近法國和瑞士邊境一條27公里長的環形地下隧道內。
由歐洲核子中心管理的這個對撞機以前曾進行過質子對撞實驗。
質子對撞可以幫助科學家進一步了解物質結構，包括捕捉難以觀察的西格斯玻色子以及探索「超對稱性」的物理學新理論。
11月開始的鉛離子對撞將側重研究宇宙形成過程，科學家將通過觀察對撞產生的瞬間「誇克-膠子等離子態」來了解137億年前宇宙形成的「大爆炸」後百萬分之一秒的物質狀態。
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/world/2010/11/101108_mini_bigbang.shtml
大型強子對撞機（LHC）產生一次'迷你宇宙大爆炸'
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) generates a 'mini-Big Bang'
By Katia Moskvitch
8 November 2010 Last updated at 13:32 GMT
Science reporter, BBC News
Translation by Autumnson Blog
One of the lead-ion collisions at the LHC其中一次在LHC的鉛離子碰撞
大型強子對撞機已成功創造一次“迷你宇宙大爆炸”，以粉碎一起的鉛離子，而代替質子。
The Large Hadron Collider has successfully created a "mini-Big Bang" by smashing together lead ions instead of protons.
The scientists working at the enormous machine on Franco-Swiss border achieved the unique conditions on 7 November.
在法國和瑞士邊境的巨大機器工作的科學家們，在11月7日達成無與倫比的狀况。
The experiment created temperatures a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
實驗創建溫度比太陽的中心熱超過一百萬倍。
The LHC is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border near Geneva.
Up until now, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator - which is run by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) - has been colliding protons, in a bid to uncover mysteries of the Universe's formation.
Proton collisions could help spot the elusive Higgs boson particle and signs of new physical laws, such as a framework called supersymmetry.
But for the next four weeks, scientists at the LHC will concentrate on analysing the data obtained from the lead ion collisions.
This way, they hope to learn more about the plasma the Universe was made of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.
One of the accelerator's experiments, ALICE, has been specifically designed to smash together lead ions, but the ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiments have also switched to the new mode.
'強勁拉力'
'Strong force'
David Evans from the University of Birmingham, UK, is one of the researchers working at ALICE.
He said that the collisions obtained were able to generate the highest temperatures and densities ever produced in an experiment.
"We are thrilled with the achievement," said Dr Evans.
The ALICE experiment has been designed specifically for lead ion collisions愛麗絲實驗已專門為鉛離子碰撞而設計
"This process took place in a safe, controlled environment, generating incredibly hot and dense sub-atomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun.
"At these temperatures even protons and neutrons, which make up the nuclei of atoms, melt resulting in a hot dense soup of quarks and gluons known as a quark-gluon plasma."
Quarks and gluons are sub-atomic particles - some of the building blocks of matter. In the state known as quark-gluon plasma, they are freed of their attraction to one another. This plasma is believed to have existed just after the Big Bang.
He explained that by studying the plasma, physicists hoped to learn more about the so-called strong force - the force that binds the nuclei of atoms together and that is responsible for 98% of their mass.
After the LHC finishes colliding lead ions, it will go back to smashing together protons once again.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11711228
歐洲大型強子對撞試驗欲造迷你版宇宙大爆炸
“迷你大爆炸”中能量噴射不對稱
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